military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (02/23/90)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Friday, 23 February, 1940 The Soviet government sends Finland an ultimatum for peace, demanding the surrender of the Karelian Isthmus and the area around Lake Ladoga, together with a 30-year lease on the Hango Penninsula. Further, Finland must sign a mutual assistance pact to assist in the defense of the Gulf of Finland. In return, the USSR is to abandon the Petsamo region. Britain's former Secretary of War, Leslie Hore-Belisha, urges armed intervention in Finland lest all of Scandinavia be threatened. The Turkish Supreme Defense Council declares a state of national emergency, following reports that a battalion of Russian soldiers had crossed the border in the Caucasus Mountain region. Turkish troops disarm the Soviets and send them home, but later a Soviet cavalry detachment returns for their weapons and refuses to return to the USSR. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@cbnews.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "Well planned, adequate and decisive action now would curtail the duration of the war." - Leslie Hore-Belisha